Dirt Spanker

It started to rain when we were getting ready to line up in the chute. I looked over at SKJ and saw that he had some beefer tires on. "It always rains up here" he says. At the top of the lung bleeder I comfortably followed Jesrin into the single track. I passed Jesrin right before we caught Chris and I sat there for a few min until I witnessed Chris almost lose his children. He was a little shaken up after that and let me by right away. I pulled away after that but started to lose ground fast when the rain started to fall on lap 2. My tires were filling up and I was sliding all over. Jesrin,SKJ,Dave Meyers, and Todd Mcfadden all passed me at the same time. I thought I was done at that point and I was contemplating dropping out at the end of the lap. At this point I took some air out of my tires and it made quite a bit of difference. Paul Hanson and I were in the same boat riding together for the rest of the lap at group ride pace, but then gapped me up the big climb going onto lap 3. It had stopped raining at this point now an things were tacking up nicely. On the 3rd lap I had made my way back up through everyone that passed me on lap 2 and was feeling comfortable through the rooty single track. On lap 4 Paul Hanson, Scott Kylander-Johnson, and Todd had all regained contact behind me. After the big descent I was going as fast as possible without going over my head and making mistakes through the technical sections. I was pulling a slight gap when I heard Paul's tire to pfffff and he went down on a board walk. He was my best bet on the final climb before descending to the finish. On the final climb I just went as hard as I could without going "ping" and played it safe through the grassy switchback descent holding off a hard charging Todd Mcfadden for 5th overall. Sam took the big "W" for the day a couple min ahead of Jay Richards who was loving the wet conditions. I loved the course and the conditions turned out to be just fine in the end.

How about that little Richards kid. Just because he just turned 15 doesn't mean he can go out there and spank the comp field. His lap times were 2.75 min slower than mine and if he did another consistent lap he would have placed mid field expert. Good Job Jake. Now go get that stars and stripes jersey that is deservingly yours.

My Dad retires this coming Sunday. Friday is his retirement party. 27 years in the fire service.